When musical keyboards are played, whether in practice, for recreation, or in performance, foot pedals are often used to control various sound producing aspects of the instrument being played. Especially, though not solely, with electronic keyboards, these foot pedals are not anchored to the floor but are simply placed on the floor at a comfortably operable position where the foot of the player can easily reach them. Secured on the floor by at most a rubber pad attached to the bottom of the foot pedal assembly, the foot pedals are free to move and pressing on them with the foot while playing tends to move them about. This is especially so when the instrument or music being played causes the musician to move about. Sometimes the foot pedals move so much that they slide out of reach of the musician altogether with concomitant reduction in music quality as the musical composition often must continue without adjustment of the instrument set-up, especially a foot pedal on the floor.
In the past people have used various techniques to stop such movement of their musical instruments from tying ropes between the musical instrument or foot pedal and the musician's seat to placing ribbed pads on the floor with mechanical stops to keep the instrument foot pedals from moving out of reach of the musician. In some cases, often with keyboard instruments such as electronic organs or keyboards, foot pedals are secured to the instrument and are electrically connected to the instrument through the securing mechanism. However, when free floating foot pedals are used, a mechanism is needed to keep the foot pedal from moving.
Further, different musicians often find that they would like to locate their foot pedals in particular positions depending on the surroundings and playing situations at different performances. Alternatively, sometimes more than one musician plays the same instrument. In both of these situations it is desirable to not only statically locate the foot pedal, but it is desirable to be able to adjust the position of a foot pedal as needed.
The above considerations also hold for other situations where foot pedals are used such as in the control of industrial equipment. In the industrial situation it is often even more desirable to be able to move a foot operated device from one static position to another and have it remain static once located, since different operators often use the same equipment, for example, after shift changes.
The need also extends into the home where various foot pedal operated devices are used. An example of these would be a home portable sewing machine where a foot pedal is used to run the machine. Foot pedals supplied with such machines are often disposed at the end of a flexible electric cord, and they tend to move around when they are operated causing great frustration on the part of the operator.
From the above discussion it is clear that a foot pedal arrestor is needed that can adjust the position of a foot pedal to accommodate an operator and hold the foot pedal statically in place relative to the operator once positioned.
Electronic musical keyboards frequently have one or more foot pedals associated with them which rest on the floor and are electrically connected to the keyboard via a wired connection. Although usually equipped with a skid resistant pad the pedals are still prone to moving away from the musician as the pedals are repeatedly pressed. When this happens the musician has to pull the pedal back into position using his hands or feet, an especially annoying process in the middle of a performance.
Typically, musicians try to prevent this pedal movement by placing a brick or a piece of equipment or anything heavy behind the pedal, but there is no existing device available to specifically address the problem.